Though he is most known for his Moonbear picture books, Frank Asch has written in almost every category of children's literature including poetry, concept books, juvenile nonfiction, and children's novels.


His first picture book, George's Store , (McGraw-Hill) was published in 1968. Since graduating from Cooper Union in 1969 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Mr. Asch has travelled widely in the U.S. and abroad, taught public school in India and in a Montessori school in the U.S. and has conducted art, writing, puppetry, and creative dramatics workshops for children all over the country.

In 1976 Mr. Asch and his wife started their own children's theatre called The Belly Buttons . In 1979, their son Devin was born. In 1981 the Asch's moved to Vermont where they became part of a home schooling community. Frank started a puppet club with his son and his friends that performed in public schools.

In l989, Mr. Asch and Vladimir Vagin of the U.S.S.R. published Here Comes the Cat , which was the first Soviet/American collaboration on a children's book. Here Comes the Cat has received wide recognition in the U.S. and was awarded the Russian National Book Award. It has since been brought back into print in hardcover by McSweeney's McMullens Publishers.

Mr. Asch teamed up with naturalist/photographer, Ted Levin for a series of poetry books for children illustrated with full color photographs in the 90's. Their first book, Sawgrass Poems was named to the John Burroughs List of Nature Books for Young Readers for 1996. Their second book, Cactus Poems won the same award in 1998.

More recently, Mr. Asch has returned once again to writing longer books for young readers with a series entitled Carboard Genius. The series has three books, Star Jumper, Gravity Buster, and Time Twister.

Besides writing and illustrating books, Mr. Asch enjoys working with children and adults, writes children's plays for "Theatre in the Woods" in which the audience follows the action through the forest, and is currently creating community centered programs consisting of several Ten Minute Plays that are written by community members and performed (read) in his renovated barn/studio.


Frank and Jan Asch live in Vermont and visit Devin who lives in Hawaii year round.